Playing with Myth-Makers: Poetry and Myths of Greek Tragedy in Theo Angelopoulos’s Poetic Cinema

Theo Angelopoulos is regarded as the main figure of the New Greek Cinema. The wide range of allusions in his films to Greek mythology and tragedy indicates his profound connection with the historical and literary reservoir of his native land. This article explores the poetic essence of Greek tragedy in his films, focusing on Ulysses’ Gaze (1995), and The Weeping Meadow (2004). The authors study the structure and themes of these two films and the poetic symbols and motifs such as fluidity, river and source as well as some other poetic elements of Greek tragedy, to argue that Angelopoulos stands as a latter-day Greek tragic poet who uses Greek mythology for deconstructive purposes in today’s world